The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c11.49

c11.49

Later writers on the agrarian system under the sultans of Dehlī do not mention the existence of *ushrī* lands. It is true that the extent of these areas was not great, but there can be no doubt about their existence. Muḥammad bin Qāsim recognized the lands of all who accepted Islam as *ushrī*.⁸ Similarly Sulṭān Quṭb-u’d-dīn Aibak commanded that all the lands possessed by Muslims should be treated as *ushrī* and be required to pay only a tenth or a twentieth of the produce as revenue.¹ This order probably applied to the region of Lāhor, though it may have extended to that part of the Panjāb which was formerly under the Ghaznavids. 'Ushrī lands continued to exist under the later sultans. Fīrūz Shāh definitely mentions 'ushr : the jurists of his reign pronounced decisions on questions relating to 'ushrī lands; the Tuhfat-u'l-kirām records that the jurists had defined certain areas as 'ushrī.²